A Quadruple from the Lily

So I decided to go up to the Lily loch Fly fishing comp tonight. There were a few A&D AC members fishing it too.

There was a strong east wind blowing right up the loch so I fished from the south shore.

I had thee trout by 7.30pm. First two trout were caught on my black uv lure the third on a wet daddy. Although I was pleased with my early catch I was annoyed by a few rather unsporting anglers who on three occasions as I went back to the shore with my netted fish moved into the area I was fishing about 20 feet along from me which hindered my casting range.

Just as I netted my third fish I went ashore to unhook the trout etc another angler moved right in to where I was fishing. This really pissed me off but rather than confront the idiot I though if hes that desperate he can carry on.

I moved to the top end of the loch but the wind was even worse so I didnt fish for a while. I then moved back down to the south shore just before 10pm and managed another trout this time on a balloon caddis pattern which was getting a lot of interest from the trout before I actually hooked my fourth and final fish.

My heaviest fish was 2lb 2oz which wasn't heavy enough to be in among the prizes. However I did rather enjoy myself tonight apart from the idiots sneaking into my area when I was unhooking my trout

The Longest Day

Last night Davie G akaThe Hillend Veteran and I went out on the loch full of hope that we could perhaps take the lead in the annual Airdrie & District AC boat pairs competition.
The competition is open to all member throughout the month of June.
The reason for our hope was the catch reports for the comp had been disappointing. The target to beat was a meagre 5lb odds.
So off we went out on the loch taking advantage of Saturday being the longest day of the year and making use of the extra daylight.
However we tried various drifts without success or even seeing a fish until about 10pm.
Not long after 10 I caught the first trout of the night which was deceived by one of my wet daddy patterns. The fish weighed just under 2lb. I had a further few offers but no more trout for me in the boat. A short time after I had netted my fish The Hillend Veteran struck into a fish which put up a heroic fight but finally succumbed to the net. Davie's fish was fooled by his black muddler pattern.
We fished on well into the dark without any further fish interested in anything we were trying to fool them with .
We eventually headed back to the club house just before midnight to get our trout weighed in. Our brace was an ounce under 4lb which I believe puts us in second place.
However as there a further four boats to compete before the end of the month I'm sure our catch will be out of contention for a second or even third place.

The Salty Dabbler

On Sunday the 15^th of June, Myself, Scott and Tam aka the Salty Dabbler, Salty Tiddler and the Salty Tangler went to Loch Etive for a day of sea fishing

Tam and Scott are more enthusiastic about the sea fishing than I am and had been to Etive fishing a few times. This was first ever sea fishing trip from a boat.

We were on the boat about 8am and went up the loch to an area that Tam likes.

On my first drop I picked up a small cod then on my second drop I landed a Ling. As the day progressed we moved about a bit and caught further codling and whiting. Then came a lull where no fish were caught for a while. We then moved a couple of mile down the loch and hooked up to a buoy and threw out our baits of squid which attracted three Thornbacks and a doggy. Time was getting on so we moved back up the loch and fished for the last half hour catching numerous codling.

We headed back ashore about 5pm.

I quite enjoyed the fishing which might have been poor by some peoples standards but the three of us rather enjoyed ourselves with about twenty five fish for the boat.

A lovely enjoyable way to spend a day on a warm summer’s day.

A Very Sunny Black Loch

I made a last minute decision today at the loch. When I turned into the car park at Hillend I decided not to bother fishing Hillend. Instead I made the short journey up to a very sunny Black Loch instead as I knew Donald was going there this morning.

I was afloat on the boat at the Black Loch about 10.30am. and met Donald a short time later near the south shore of the loch. Donald and his boat companion were doing very well with numerous fish caught and released.

Donald was getting a lot of fish on the Candy Floss Booby, not a pattern I am familiar with but Donald gave me one and I tried it for a while without any luck. I had a plethora of takes and rises to my flies but nothing would stick. Eventually I managed a trout which was foiled by my Jingler pattern which I had on my dropper and a daddy on the point. It was my one and only trout of the day which looks about the 2lb mark. Shortly after I dispatched my trout I hooked another but it broke me. That's about the third or fourth time Ive been broken recently . I think my leader material must be brittle. Its 5lb maxima. So I will be giving this a body swerve in future.

Anyway I fished on until about 3.30pm and had another couple of rises to the fly but no further trout.

As you can see from the pics above Donald and his boat partner were not the only ones who knew where the fish were.